Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

SSD for white MacBook

J

Jorseff

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 16, 2011
2
0
Hi all,

The HDD on my MacBook has just given up and so needs replacing (thank god for Time Machine!). I'm vaguely toying with the idea of getting an SSD for the increased speed, what do you guys and gals think? Any thoughts on whether this is a good idea and, if it is, any suggestions on particular SSDs?

Due to cost I'd just use it for OS X and applications, with all big files on an external; I'd guess <80GB should suffice.

I've got zero experience with SSDs, and about the same amount of knowledge of them! I'm running a white MacBook, 2.2GHz 4GB.

Thanks in advance,

Joe
 
I put an SSD in an older MacBook last year. It's a 2007 model. It is extremely fast now. By far the best computer upgrade I've ever done. Easy too.

I went with OWC. I liked their site - videos on how to install, detailed instructions with the drive, good customer service... If it's all new to you, they might be a good company to go with.

Good luck, I think it's an upgrade you'll be very pleased with. By the way, I'd go with as large a drive as you can afford. You will become impatient with the speed of an external drive once you get used to the SSD!
 
I went with an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB for my 2007 Black and it is awesome. It comes with a funky sticker which is now on my MacBook, which reads "MY SSD IS FASTER THAN YOUR HDD!!" :D
 
scrob said:
I went with an OCZ Vertex 2 120GB for my 2007 Black and it is awesome. It comes with a funky sticker which is now on my MacBook, which reads "MY SSD IS FASTER THAN YOUR HDD!!" :D
Click to expand...

Hahah same upgrade here on a late 2009 2.26 ghz, used an optibay so i have 250 gb spinning and 120 gb solid state!

Reason I laughed is b/c of the reference to the sticker, seeing it right now, love it ever since I bought it!

Btw, the upgrade is said to be the best you can do to an old (or not so old) computer. I agree.
 
Do it!

I put a OCZ ssd in my 2007 Macbook two years ago and added years to its life!
 
Just curious, for those of you guys who installed the SSD, is TRIM supported?
 
jskee said:
Just curious, for those of you guys who installed the SSD, is TRIM supported?
Click to expand...

No, currently TRIM is only supported for Apple SSD's (those that ship with Apple products) in Lion. If your SSD has garbage collection, you don't need TRIM. (My OWC does. I think maybe all SandForce SSD's have gc.)

There is a TRIM Support Enabler program that has been written by a MacRumors member - Cindori. Here's the thread for that:

https://forums.macrumors.com/threads/1125400/

I used it for a while with no issues. I haven't turned it back on after moving to Lion.
 
Help... issue with SSD upgrade

Hello All,

I have tried a number of times to upgrade my Macbook 4.1 2.16 with a SSD.
I have a 120gb OCZ Vertex Plus ssd.

I have tried over 10 times now and each time the system will work for maybe one reboot or 2 and then I get the Question mark and the SSD will not show any OS system.

I then try to format again and sometimes the SSD will not respond at all or I need to use a windows computer to do a erase? I have returned the drive and tried a new one.. same thing.

Tried a Clone Copy, Tried and fresh install of both Lion and Lepard and snow Lepard.

Help.... it is very fast when it works... but have not been able to complete the upgrade yet. any suggestions>?
 
shanerrs said:
Hello All,

I have tried a number of times to upgrade my Macbook 4.1 2.16 with a SSD.
I have a 120gb OCZ Vertex Plus ssd.

I have tried over 10 times now and each time the system will work for maybe one reboot or 2 and then I get the Question mark and the SSD will not show any OS system.

I then try to format again and sometimes the SSD will not respond at all or I need to use a windows computer to do a erase? I have returned the drive and tried a new one.. same thing.

Tried a Clone Copy, Tried and fresh install of both Lion and Lepard and snow Lepard.

Help.... it is very fast when it works... but have not been able to complete the upgrade yet. any suggestions>?
Click to expand...


Have you tried with more than one ssd?

Never heard of that problem. possibly a bad disk?

I always put and ISO of OSX on an external. Boot from it, and then use disk utility to format the SSD (already in the computer) and install.

works for me.
 
ataboc said:
Have you tried with more than one ssd?

Never heard of that problem. possibly a bad disk?

I always put and ISO of OSX on an external. Boot from it, and then use disk utility to format the SSD (already in the computer) and install.

works for me.
Click to expand...

I have the same ocz vertez plus ssd with the same problem on my 2007 macbook. It works for only one or two reboots, then the system will not recognized the ssd. I also performed a clone drive and that didnt' work either. I spoke with ocz support and they said it might not be compatible with the old macbook. I'm currently using the ssd for my windows system pc and it works great but i really want to make it work for my macbook. If someone knows how to get this to work, please post here. Thank you.
 
firmware update

my3cents said:
I have the same ocz vertez plus ssd with the same problem on my 2007 macbook. It works for only one or two reboots, then the system will not recognized the ssd. I also performed a clone drive and that didnt' work either. I spoke with ocz support and they said it might not be compatible with the old macbook. I'm currently using the ssd for my windows system pc and it works great but i really want to make it work for my macbook. If someone knows how to get this to work, please post here. Thank you.
Click to expand...

I had this problem too but I found that when I updated the SSD firmware to the latest version, the problem no longer exists. I've been running for a few weeks now with no crashes. I even reinstalled Lion and enabled full-disk encryption with no problems.
 
*Just realized how old this thread is! In the words of Rick Perry - Whoops!*

I put an Intel 320 80GB in the 2.1Ghz model and I have to say it is really worth the investment. With 4GB ram there is tons of life left in this computer, though I just shelled out for a replacement battery today.

Keep in mind you may be limited by the SATA speed of your MacBook (if it is the older white model - not sure about the unibody one). If so, it is SATA 1.5, meaning any new SATA 3 drives would be a waste of money. That's why I opted for the 320 - It performed reasonably well in reviews for SATA 2, which means it saturates my 1.5 interface.

I also enabled TRIM using these instructions, as I found it to be more stable than the Trim Enabler tool: http://digitaldj.net/2011/07/21/trim-enabler-for-lion/
 
I use OWC SSDs on some of our office MacBooks for over a year and a half now. So far so good, no trim enabled nor any slowdown detected.
 
For a while people were recommending those hybrid drives. Much less expenditure and significant gains. I think people were using Momentus XT's.
 
Enable Trim

It is possible to enable TRIM support on non Mac ssd's via Terminal. Just google enable trim support on mac or something like that.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back